Fire

I was sleeping soundly at 5am when I was rudely awakened by the loud noise of  someone banging the door. It sounded really alarming and all 4 of us rushed out of our rooms and was greeted by a blanket of blackness. One of my block-mates opened the front door, and immediately screamed and rushed back in. We asked what happened. She said there's a fire and the smoke is so thick she couldn't see anything and couldn't breath. We quickly rushed back to our rooms wondering what to do. The toxic fumes slowly seeped into our rooms. We were suffocating. We couldn't breath. I ran to the window for some air. My entire body was shaking in fear of death.

My block-mates started packing. Taking their most important belongings with them. We were going to evacuate the place. Again, we tried pushing our way out. But again greeted by such a thick smoke we failed and rushed back in again. This time, I felt dizzy. My heart was beating really fast. I felt it was going to jump out of my chest. I felt pain in my throat and chest. I thought I was going to die. I had my precious DSLR bag on my left shoulder and my bag which contained my purse, visa & my newly bought leather jacket on my right. Those were all I thought about saving. My laptop never crossed my mind.

In the end, we braved ourselves and pushed our ways out. I could barely find a pair of sandals to wear. I was clad in my pyjamas & my leather jacket. We had difficulty as we walked to the safety exit staircase as there were plenty of broken furnitures strewned all over the corridor. I nearly tripped on one of the broken woods. The burning room was approximately 3meters away from our left door. We had to pass the burning room in order to reach to safety. The route was so narrow. I could see a few Malaysians standing in front blocking the exit looking at what was going on.

I scoffed at them thinking how ignorant they can be. They should be alerting everyone asking them to evacuate the place instead of standing there feeding on their interest. We ran down coughing and coughing with tears in our eyes. We stopped awhile to breath. Apparently no one knew about the fire other than less than 30 students in the entire building. Even the other side of the floor were sound asleep unaware of what was happening until the very next day. Imagine if the fire were to travel to the entire floor. Everyone would be burned alive in their sleep.

We ran down the stairs to safety. On the ground floor, I saw one of the victims. She was burnt pretty badly. Her coffee colored skin has turned white in most of the places. Her face, her hair, her lips, her hands, both  feets were burnt as well. She was shaking badly crying softly in agony. We were to shock to do anything. We were greeted by 2 fire engines & 3 ambulances. I was relieved and glad about their efficiency in coming to the rescue. Soon the other 6 remaining victims were brought to the ambulance. 1 was brought to the ambulance by stretches. I thought something really bad has happened to her. I wondered about the condition of my room and all my belongings.

At 7am we were allowed to walk back into the hostel. We went to check our rooms. It still has the ever strong toxic fumes smell and the doors were barged open by the firemen. Electrics were cut off for the entire floor. In the end I decided to go to my friend's room for shelter which was located 1 floor above. I spent the dawn till noon there. I went back to my room to retrieve my laptop and by using my friend's wireless, I called my parents & the special one using skype. They were worried and alarmed by the situation. I wish the special one was here because I really needed a shoulder to lean on at horrible times like this.

The news about the fire has circulated all over the net. This is the 3rd fire in the hostel in the course of 7 years. I really hope we are going to be moved to another hostel before any incident occur again.